USA/Consumer prices—
By Mike Moen, producer, Alabama News Service, bureau, Public News Service.
A new national poll shows Americans have a bleak view about affording basic needs. In a Pew Research Center October survey 74% of respondents said they are very concerned about gas and energy prices, up from 60% in July.
J. Michael Collins, professor of public affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and associate director of the Institute for Research on Poverty, is not surprised. Collins says the survey mirrors other recent polls on economic prosperity. Americans do not generally care about how the stock market is doing. They are just fed up with how much things cost.
Consumer concerns
“People can’t eat their assets. You know, they need income to be able to pay for groceries, and the fact that their 401(k) is rising might be great when they get to retirement age, but people are really worried about the day-to-day,” Collins explains.
Nearly three-quarters of respondents said they are very worried about the cost of food and consumer goods. Only 21% suggested the state of the stock market was important to them.
Southern states like Alabama are feeling the pain. Regional prices for all items are up nearly 3.5% over the past year. Meanwhile, in the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim area, the Consumer Price Index (CPI-U) for all items increased 3.7% over the 12 months ending in September 2026.
Also, Collins points out when hyperinflation took hold in 2022, people had built up some savings. Therefore, they could get through the pandemic more easily. Now many households have lost that cushion, and lingering inflation is causing financial worries.
“We think about inflation as being this rate of change but really what people are saying is six years ago things cost ‘X’ and now they cost ‘X times two.’ And so, that really is driving feelings of, ‘Geez, it seems like no matter how much more I’m able to earn, I can’t keep up,'” Collins observed.
“In some places, the cost of housing is 50% or more of your take-home pay. And for even somebody who’s not technically in poverty, they feel like they’re poor,” Collins added.
